Partnerships

UNESCO - UNISA Africa Chair in nanoscience and nanotechnology

Partner institutions & Strategic new partnerships

These are now formal funding/operational partners

Belmont Forum (International multilateral funding partner Address: Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI), Panama City, Panama. Website: https://www.belmontforum.org	The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) Address: ICTP campus, Strada Costiera 11, 34151 Trieste, Italy E-mail: info@twas.org Website: http://www1.univ-tlemcen.dz/~lepm
INRS – Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (University of Quebec) Address: Montreal, Quebec, Canada Contact: Prof. Kulbir Kaur Ghuman (Canada Research Chair) Website: https://inrs.ca	INIM – Institut de Nanotechnologie et Innovation en Matériaux Avancés Address: UCAD, BP. 5376, Dar-Fann, Senegal Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo Contact: Prof. Michel Kalombo (Founding President). Website: https://inrsiit.cg/
University of Cologne Address: Köln, Germany Contact: Prof. Sanjay Mathur (Director) Website: https://www.uni-koeln.de

(The existing iThemba LABS entry should be promoted from "partner" to co-host, since the 2026 report now lists the Chair under iThemba LABS/NRF – Materials Research Department/Tandetron.)

Strategic new partnerships

U2ACN2–Belmont Forum (NRF–ANR–FAPESP) As Principal Investigator, the Chair initiated and led a successful Belmont Forum Collaborative Research Action under the multilateral programme jointly funded by the NRF (South Africa), ANR (France) and FAPESP (Brazil). A total of ~R8.78 million (€439,000) was awarded in 2025, with ~2 million Rand allocated to the Chair via the NRF; a further ~R9.5 million proposal was submitted to the 2026 call.

U2ACN2–Government of Canada / Quebec Following official visits by the Canadian federal Finance Minister and the Quebec Minister of International Relations and La Francophonie, an MoU was signed cementing cooperation with INRS–University of Quebec on materials for energy conversion and storage. (This activates the previously "in process" UNESCO MATECSS–UNISA partnership.)

U2ACN2–UNESCO Africa Campus Award under the UNESCO Africa Campus 2026 call (~R400,000), supporting continental capacity-building activities.

U2ACN2–TWAS-UNESCO Participation in the TWAS-UNESCO Centre of Excellence in the South programme, together with TWAS/NRF-funded PhD fellowships for non-South African students.

U2ACN2–APS & IUPAP Sponsorship partnerships with the American Physical Society and the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics towards the FSTA-2027 (Frontiers Sciences & Technologies for Africa) initiative.

Newly established synergies

Africa

Institut de Nanotechnologie et Innovation en Matériaux Avancés (INIM), Kinshasa, DR Congo.
Botswana University of Agriculture & Natural Sciences (BUAN), Gaborone, Botswana.
Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, Ghana.
University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), Nsukka, Nigeria.
Hawassa University, Hawassa, Ethiopia.
University of Rwanda, Kigali, Rwanda.
University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya.
University of Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa.

BRICS/IBSA regions

São Carlos Institute of Physics, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.

Europe

University of Cologne, Köln, Germany
Institute of Materials (IMMM), University of Le Mans, Le Mans, France
Eastern Mediterranean University, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Famagusta, Cyprus
University of Ghent, Ghent, Belgium.

United Kingdom (UK)

University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK.

Asia-Pacific

University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, Australia.
International Institute for Carbon-Neutral Energy Research (I2CNER), Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan.

Middle East (new grouping — the reports specifically flag Middle East/Iran/Pakistan expansion)

Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran.
Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran.
Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran.
Shahrood University of Technology, Shahrood, Iran.